The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep
by TheBrightestNight
Summary: "But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep." Robert Frost


**So this is just a short one-shot of my OC for my stories, It's the Perfect Story and I Need Another Story, interacting with Apollo after he's turned human. I am planning on incorporating her into the TOA series, but right now I'm making my way through the HOO series, so it'll have to wait for now.**

 **There will be some references to things my OC has gone through, but it should be able to stand alone.**

 **I'm writing this because after hearing and reading about Apollo thinking about Daphne and Hyacinthus in TOA, I got this idea of my OC interacting with Apollo about that, because she, too, knows about the great loss of a loved one.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

" _But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep." Robert Frost_

Apollo—Lester, whatever—threw down his sword with a growl before stomping past me, hitting my shoulder with his on his way out of the arena. For a lanky teen with _flab_ (as he'd complained about nonstop since he'd gotten here), he was surprisingly strong. Or perhaps it was because his shoulder was just really bony.

I let out a frustrated sigh and looked down, annoyed at him for being such a brat. Then I looked up at the rest of the class, comprised of my siblings, Julia, Alice, and Conner, as well as Paolo, and suddenly felt more annoyed, but also guilty. Their faces told me everything I needed to know about my comment.

I took a deep breath, rolling my eyes skyward, placing my hands on my hips "I…went too far, didn't I?" I ventured, looking at my siblings through the corners of my eyes.

"Maybe just a little," Will said quietly.

"He's had a rough day," Kayla explained.

"Yeah," Austin chimed in. "During music class he used some of his power and became pretty exhausted."

"And he only hit the bull's-eye once during archery, which really…disappointed him. He-he even swore on the Styx not to do anything that had to do with music and archery until he was a god again." Kayla finished.

The more they explained, however, the more annoyed I got. The more they explained, the more Apollo sounded like a bratty, petulant, spoiled child, who didn't know how to fail.

"I'll…go talk to him," I ground out through my teeth, clenching my fists at my side. As I turned to leave, however, everyone started to object: my siblings, the kids from the Hermes cabin. Paolo even began to speak in Portuguese. I silenced them with a glare over my shoulder. "Class is excused." I growled as I stormed out of the arena.

As I expected he would, Will followed me. Kayla and Austin trailed behind us, but kept their distance.

"Tori, maybe you should let him cool off," Will suggested practically jogging to keep up with my angered, fast pace. "Or let one of us talk to him."

"What are you implying?" I asked, glaring at him.

"Just that…well, you don't handle other people…as well as, say me—"

"I can be perfectly delicate when I want to be," I snapped, stopping, forcing Will to stop. My half-brother gave me a look that told me he wasn't missing the irony between my statement and the way I'd delivered it. I took another deep breath and tried to calm myself down a little bit, which was harder than you'd think considering that every time I thought about why I was so annoyed I just became aggravated again.

"Look, I know what you're going to say to him if _you_ "—I looked over Will's shoulder at Kayla and Austin, standing far enough away they were in the safe zone, but close enough they could hear the conversation—" _any_ of you, talk to him." I did an over-dramatization of someone comforting another, "'She's just giving you a hard time. She doesn't mean it.'"

Will looked insulted. "What's wrong with that? We're trying to comfort him, not make it worse. You've been giving him grief ever since he got here. Not to mention during our class just now."

"Because one of those statements isn't true!" I exclaimed. "Yeah, I am giving him a hard time. But I do mean it. I mean _all_ of it. He needs to _grow up_ and learn that he's human now. He has to accept that _this_ is how it's going to work now. This is his punishment for a reason. He needs to learn a lesson." Without waiting for a response, I turned and stalked toward the Apollo cabin. Will called after me, but I ignored him. He also didn't follow me, though. Hopefully it was because he knew there wasn't anything any of them could do to stop me.

I entered the cabin, slamming the door behind me, but took a deep breath and tried to go to my happy place before looking around the room. It was completely empty, but I noticed the bathroom door was closed. My hand twitched in agitation. I really hoped everyone locked themselves in the bathroom when trying to get away from someone and it wasn't just one of those things that "ran in the family."

 _Happy thoughts,_ I reminded myself as I quietly approached the door. I was hesitant to do this, because, and I hate to admit this so soon after, but Will was right. I wasn't as delicate as I thought I could be.

After taking shit for so long, I told it how it was with no remorse. If you asked me for the truth, I would give it to, whether or not it was at your expense. Of course, this wasn't a hard-and-fast rule. If I had to lie to save innocent people's lives, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but when it came to telling the truth and lying in the context of people skills? My people skills had either been nonexistent or I had lost them over the years.

I took another breath—it was shaking now—before hesitantly raising my hand, the back facing the door, and knocking lightly. I leaned close to it, so I could hear him better if he responded. There was a huge possibility he wouldn't because of who was talking to him.

"Apollo?" I called.

There was silence for a count of fifteen, then: "What?"

I sighed heavily. I should've thought this through better. I wasn't going to apologize, because I wasn't sorry, but I'm sure that's what he wanted to hear. "I…I may have taken it a little too far today with the teasing."

Another pause, shorter this time.

"And?"

There it was. He was expecting an apology. I resisted giving him one. If it wasn't sincere, it wasn't an apology. "All right, I admit that I went too far this afternoon in the sword-fighting arena."

I heard him snort. "You're terrible at this apology thing. You know, I may not have apologized to people, but I know what a proper one looks like."

I let out a sharp sigh and shifted my feet, his implied arrogance getting to me. "Maybe because I'm not _trying_ to apologize."

"Oh, _that_ makes me feel _so_ much better."

I lifted my fist, but held back from slamming it on the door. Or kicking the door down and charging in there. He probably wouldn't appreciate that very much.

"Why are you even putting so much effort into bullying me, huh?"

"I am _not_ —" I started to protest indignantly.

"Oh, please, spare me!"

I opened my mouth to respond, but quickly swallowed that response and tried to get my emotions under control again, clenching my fists at my side so hard, my palms hurt. "Okay, I admit…I may…have let my emotions get in the way of being a mentor—"

"More like _tor_ mentor," Apollo muttered so quietly, I almost didn't catch it.

It took all my willpower to ignore him. "I'll try to be better—" I broke off on the account of Apollo opening the door. He took a step closer to me, going toe-to-toe.

"Save it," he snarled. "I know you're doing this on purpose. I know you get enjoyment out of teasing me and making fun of me. All because of what? Some old vendetta you have against me—"

"How dare you," I interrupted him. "How dare you refer to my anger over my mom's death as just some 'old vendetta' against you!"

"I told you already, I couldn't have done anything about that!"

"And I've told _you_ , that's not good enough!"

"There are rules, the Ancient Laws, that prevent me from interfering with the mortal world too much. I can't do anything about that."

"You've interfered before!"

"That's not the same thing—"

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit— You were a god!"

Apollo jolted, blinking and took a step back. The wounded expression on his face, the hurt in his eyes was enough to make me feel guilty about what I'd said, of what I'd reminded him off.

That hurt quickly turned into anger. "You're absolutely right. I _was_ a god." He shoved past me and started toward the exit.

I turned. "Apollo," I tried, trying to follow him.

He glared at me over his shoulder. " _Don't_ follow me." Apollo slammed the door as he left. I knew it would do no use to go after him again.

As the moment passed and I was left to myself, I could feel my heart beating erratically in my chest. I lifted my hand up to see it trembling. I tried to take a deep breath and clenched my hands into fists as I lowered the one I'd held up. I really didn't want to have a panic attack right now. Not after that.

I was carefully making my way over to my bunk when Will, Austin, and Kayla entered. They started asking me questions about what happened, why Apollo looked so angry (so I guess they'd seen him on his way out), what I said to him. I heard none of it because I was concentrating so hard on not having a panic attack.

I sat down on the edge of my bed, the three kind of crowding around me, prompting me to answer, but I ignored them as I grabbed the pillow from my bed and set it in my lap, smoothing out all the wrinkles in the pillowcase.

"Tori," Will said with enough force to get my attention. My gaze drifted up to meet his eyes. He looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

I gave him a small smile before shoving the pillow in my face and screaming.

* * *

It was almost lunch time and Apollo had been avoiding me since our fight. Not that I could blame him really. I was avoiding him as much as possible, too. Though I think Austin and Kayla were a little put out, because our dear, old father wasn't just avoiding me, he was avoiding all of us. Will was mad because it'd gone just as he'd expected and I hadn't listened to his warning.

Anyway, Will wanted to make sure Apollo ate something before the three-legged death race, so we went to look for him. All three of my siblings tried to object at first.

"I feel bad, okay," I told them. "I want to make amends."

They were still reluctant, but allowed me to search for him. We split up and went to different areas of camp, staying away from the woods, of course.

I wasn't expecting to find him, but as I was passing the archery range, I spotted a figure sitting in the meadow next to the range. They had their knees pulled up slightly to their chest and were holding something. They may have been staring at it, but I couldn't tell from this far away. I figured, since most of the camp was preparing for the death race, and bribing Harley, it was Apollo.

I paused and took a deep breath before approaching him. As I got closer I realized it was a single purple flower he was holding. And he was staring at it, twisting it between his finger and thumb.

"Um, Apollo," I said softly. He jumped, lifting his head but looking away from me, reaching up to wipe his face.

"What do you want?" he asked, sounding utterly defeated, also sniffling.

I pretended to ignore this. "May I…?" I pointed to the spot on his right. He looked at me from the corners of his red-rimmed eyes.

"Whatever," he mumbled, letting the flower fall from his hand and looking away.

As I sat down, with a jolt, I realized that the purple flower was a hyacinth. I peeked over at him…red-rimmed eyes, sniffling, wiping his face: he'd been crying. My eyes strayed back down to the purple flower. I suddenly felt a thousand times guiltier for all the shit I'd given him, the things I'd said earlier.

I was annoyed that I felt guilty, though, too. These feelings of anger and animosity had been growing inside me since the day my mom had died, so I had two warring emotions. The better part of my nature wanted to feel guilty, the other part wanted him to suffer as much as humanly possible. This _was_ his punishment after all. And that arrogant, fat head of his could use a bit of deflating. Not to mention that it wouldn't hurt if he was knocked down a peg or two. Maybe he'd actually learn something from being human this time.

I looked back down at the flower and sighed. My better nature won out.

"I'm sorry," I said, looking out at the archery range, hoping he'd know that I was sorry not just for what I'd said earlier today, but the way I'd acted toward him since he'd gotten here. I would never be sorry for how I felt about my mom and how he'd done nothing to prevent it or help her.

I felt his eyes on me, his shock practically palpable, but I kept my eyes forward. Finally, he stopped staring at me and looked at the range, as well.

"I'm sorry, too," he said. It was my turn to stare at him shocked. He actually met my gaze, though. "I shouldn't have said what I said. I did love your mother, very much. It wasn't that she could act, because she was a wonderful actor. It wasn't that she could play a multitude of instruments, beautifully, I might add." He looked out at the range again, his voice wistful and sad. "Her voice was one of the more beautiful voices I've ever heard during my four thousand year life." He paused. I looked down at the ground, swallowing the bile in my throat and blinking away my tears. "I want you to know that you got your singing voice from her. None of that had to do with me."

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I was _beyond_ surprised, shocked, flabbergasted, _beyond_ bewildered. I was…flattered, and embarrassed, evident from the heat I felt in my face, but my chest also swelled with an emotion I couldn't quite explain from his compliment. It also hurt somewhat, because of the fact that we were talking about my mom. Her death would _always_ haunt me.

I looked down at the purple hyacinth again. Just like another death that would forever haunt me.

I picked it up delicately and looked at it, spinning it between my finger and thumb as Apollo had done.

"It never gets any easier, does it?" I asked in a whisper.

There was a long, silent moment. "Never," he answered in ragged voice.

"Even after all this time," I added. It wasn't really a question, though, because I knew the answer.

His echo was hollow, "Even after all this time."

I looked over at Apollo, who was purposefully avoiding my gaze. Looking back down at the flower, I had a sudden idea. I plucked up a handful of flowers in the meadow, which were definitely not hyacinths, and bundled them together with the one hyacinth. I focused on the rune on my wrist and waved my hand over the bouquet, turning the rest of the flowers into purple hyacinths and making their stems longer.

"What are you doing?" Apollo asked. "How did you do that?"

I gave him a strange look, then remembered. "Oh, that's right, you weren't there for my sentencing. I got to keep the rune, but had to sign a very strict, binding contract. As to what I'm doing, you'll see."

I started weaving the flowers together, using the stems.

"I never meant to push you over the edge," I started as I weaved. Apollo made a noise at the back of his throat and I looked up at him momentarily. He had an eyebrow raised. "Okay, so maybe I wanted to push you over the edge a little." I admitted, going back to my weaving. "But I shouldn't have gone so far. I let my emotions get the best of me, I do feel genuinely sorry that I did. It's just…you have to understand that things aren't going to come so easily to you now.

"You have to work for what you want. And that work is going to be exhausting, and physically and emotionally draining. You have to be prepared to give everything you have for the tiniest chance that you might be able to save some lives. You have to be ready to _risk_ your life to fix what's wrong, to make up for your past transgressions.

"Because there's going to come a point in time where your world will shrink and you will feel absolutely alone. You'll want to give up. It's then that you have to fight to remind yourself that you're fighting for something, for some _one_ , and then do it. Fight."

I finished weaving the last flower before holding it up to show Apollo. He was staring at me with an expression I couldn't decipher but that quickly morphed into confusion at the thing I held in my hands, mixed with pain and wistfulness.

His eyes slid back to me.

"A flower crown?" he asked dryly. "Really?"

I gave him my own look. "Yes, really. Hold still." I leaned forward and placed it on his head, letting it rest in his curly brown hair. "Okay, now, smile!" I said, throwing my arm over his shoulders and pulling him closer to me as I pulled the specially designed "phone" to take a selfie (it was really more like a music player that had a camera, could access the internet occasionally, and allowed me to talk with my brother through text; also curtesy of the Hephaestus cabin). I wouldn't be able to send it Dan, what with communication's being down for some reason, but it would be good to have for when I could contact him.

"What?" Apollo asked, looking at me instead of the phone as I held it up and gave my best smile.

I pulled away to look at the photo, Apollo looking with me.

I frowned as he said, "I look ridiculous."

"That's because you're not smiling," I shot back. "Try again." I threw my arm around his shoulders once again. This time around, he was looking to his left with the driest expression I'd ever seen on a person. "That'll have to do." I put my phone back in my back pocket just as the conch horn sounded for lunch. "Come on, it's lunch time." I stood but Apollo started to take the flower crown off, so I grabbed his wrist to stop him. "Don't take it off. You look great."

Apollo rolled his eyes and stood, forcing me to let go of his wrist. "No, I don't. I just look like more of a dorky, _human_ teenager."

"You _are_ a dorky, human teenager."

"Thanks."

I ignored him. "But you're really rockin' the flower crown." I grabbed his wrists before he could take the crown off and started dragging him to the dining pavilion. Apollo resisted and complained the whole way there, but I had a feeling he actually didn't mind, considering he hadn't tried to escape my grasp and pull the crown off his head.

When we arrived at the pavilion, the campers were already at their tables, chattering excitedly about the death race. At the Hephaestus table, Harley had his bribes and offerings piled high. Nyassa was beaming.

The excited chatter died down as we came into view, and all eyes turned on us out of instinct. Only, they stayed on us…well, Apollo mostly. There was a beat of silence before most of the girls and some boys rushed up to us. Well, Apollo. I deftly moved out of the way, avoiding an elbow to the chest, used to this. (People still didn't trust me.)

I smiled at Apollo, who looked stricken as people chattered at him about his flower crown and how cute it was. It probably didn't help that Chiara was speaking in rapid-fire, excited Italian and Paolo was speaking in rapid-fire, excited Portuguese. Apollo met my eyes with a look that said, "Help me." but I simply shrugged and went to take a seat at the Apollo table.

Will and Nico were one of the only ones still sitting.

"I see you made up," Will commented. "There's hope for you after all." I smiled but kicked him in the shin under the table. Will jumped and gasped, "Ow." before reaching down to rub his leg, pouting at me.

"Hey, now, careful with the significant annoyance," Nico chided.

I snickered and was about to say something, when I heard my name.

"No, actually, it was Tori," Apollo was saying. The group around him paused before turning to look at me. I realized what Apollo had done and was about to book it out of there but was too late in moving. Chiara and Paolo were the first ones to come up to me. I leaned away and gripped the table to avoid pulling my sword on them. Because let me tell you, not only is two people rushing you speaking in two different languages terrifying, but also because of my past, my brain detected threats _everywhere_ , even when there weren't any.

So this excitement? A threat.

The rest followed and soon _I_ was surrounded, frozen, and baffled. I looked to Will for help, even Nico, but they offered none. Austin and Kayla were part of the crowd, asking me if I could teach them how to make a flower crown. When I got to Apollo, he simply smiled and shrugged. I narrowed my eyes at him and he laughed.

I looked at the crowd around me and felt my chest swell and tears form in my eyes, but I fought to hold them back.

It was just good to know that even after everything, even if they mistrusted me still, even when camp was in the midst of a crisis, we could pull back from the doom and gloom and still have fun.

" _And miles to go before I sleep."_

* * *

 **All right, there you have it! A little extra/excerpt for my next "book" that will delve into the TOA series! I know Apollo had something important to tell Chiron and others after what happened with Kayla, him, and Sherman, but I figure him having another class, and then Tori fighting with him, and him going off and sulking, it would've taken his mind off it for a little bit.**

 **So, like, after this and when things calm down a bit and they all get back to lunch, it gets back to the book where Apollo is trying to tell someone about what he's figured out, but no one will listen because they're too busy preparing for the three-legged death race. I hope that makes enough sense.**

 **The quotes are bit different than my usual, but I thought it really fit, considering what the hidden Oracle is in THO, and basically what happens in the book.**

 **Thank you for reading,  
** **TheBrightestNight**


End file.
